1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a printing method and a printing device, in particular, to a printing method and a printing device for confidential printing.
2. Description of the Related Art
When using a printer in an office, it is important to pay attention to prevention of information leakages. Therefore, a printing device such as an MFP (Multi-Function Peripheral), which is commonly used by a plurality of users, normally is equipped with a confidential printing function for preventing a third party from viewing printed matter.
As to the confidential printing function, a method is known for starting to print when the user identification process is completed by the user's operation of the MFP after the print data is transmitted to the MFP (Unexamined Publication Nos. JP-A-8-314659 and JP-A-2004-94816).
However, if the number of pages to be printed or the printing paper size is large or a printing mode such as color printing or double side printing is set up, it may take a long time for printing after the user identification process is completed. In such a case the user ends up spending a lot of time waiting for the completion of printing in front of the MFP in any case. On the other hand, if users hate to spend long times waiting in front of the printer and opt to use conventional printing instead, the rate of confidential printing usage drops and the information leakage prevention will not be as thorough as it is planned to be.